Page 91 of Swept Away

“I can’t remember,” Lexi says tearfully. “I can’t remember if it’s…oh seven, oh seven six…”

Madur glances at me, eyebrows slightly raised. “Can you help her? I really need to examine you both. That’s our number one priority right now.”

He reaches for her wrist and pauses, head cocked, listening to her pulse. On the floor beside him he’s laid out a series of cards in bright colors: I catch the wordscasualtyandlifesaving interventions.

“Lexi, I need you to take a breath. Just in for four, out for eight. Can you try it with me?”

She shakes him off, eyes glued to Kiki’s phone.

“Oh seven…Oh seven seven? Oh seven six?”

“Lexi.”

She looks up. I feel a little dash of pride at being able to cut through to her.

“You’re going to see Mae so soon,” I say softly. “It doesn’t matter if you can’t call home yet. Because you’regoing homenow.”

Her eyes instantly fill with tears. “Oh, God, don’t say it,” she says. “What if it isn’t true? What if we…”

“Lexi,” Madur says, crouching down in front of her and steadying himself with a hand on the floor. “Looking at what-ifs will have really helped you survive on that houseboat. But you’re safe now. The most important thing to do is to let me look after you, so that when you get home to your little girl…”

His eyes fly to me, checking he’s got it right. I nod.

“You can be the best you can be for her. OK?”

Lexi lets out a shaky breath. “What is it?” she says, in the tone that means,Fine, I’m listening. “In for four, out for what?”

Madur smiles. “In for four, out for eight.”

I lean back into the seat and watch her try it. The phone’s trembling in her lap—her hands are shaking. I look down. Mine are, too. I’m feeling kind of…weird. Disconnected. It’s like I won’t let myself believe it, whatever I say to Lexi about how we’re going home. I guess there’ve just been times before when I thought we were rescued—that ship we saw, the rig—so I’ve got used to never trusting what looks like a miracle.

But there’s Madur, a proper qualified person wearing plastic gloves and checking over Lexi’s injuries. If that doesn’t count as a real miracle, I don’t know what the hell does.

“Is this meant to be doing something?” Lexi says, cracking open one eye. “This breathing thing?”

For the first time in a while, I laugh. My voice sounds creaky, as if I’ve kind of forgotten how to do it.

“I think it’s meant to calm you down,” I say. “Right, Madur?”

“That’s about it, yeah.”

Lexi scowls. “What would I want to calm down for?” she says. “Are we not being rescued? Is this not rescue?”

“Yeah, it is,” Madur says. “That’s exactly what—”

“Calm is for a crisis,” Lexi says, leaning forward in her seat. “Calm is for when we’re trying to work out how the hell not to die. I’malivenow. You’re telling me I’m safe. I don’t want to beanythingbut buzzing.”

“Right,” Madur says after a moment, breathing out a laugh. “OK, well, as you were, then.”

Lexi meets my eyes, and for the first time since the storm started, her fierce intensity breaks, and she smiles.

“Tell me again,” she says.

“We’re going home.”

“Again.”

“We’re going home.”

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